Meet the Hanley Team

Team Vicar - Revd Sally Smith

Sally was ordained in 2009, and served her curacy in
Stone.She joined the team in 2012 as interim
Team Vicar, based at ChristChurch, Cobridge, whilst
the Hanley Team was being reviewed and reshaped.She says "I love working in the Team
serving the city centre, with all of its diversity.No two days are the same, and it's exciting
to imagine God's promised future, as we join hands and work together in the
task that God has called each one of us to".Sally continues to work in her role as safeguarding
officer for vulnerable adults for the Lichfield Diocese.

Captain Frank McGregor Frank is our Parish Creative Missioner. Originally from Birmingham, Frank is married with 5 children.

After a variety of jobs in London he spent a year as an assistant to a Vicar in Wandsworth, who pointed him in the direction of Church Army. He became an Evangelist in 1991 and moved to Bath to lead a Church Planting team in a local school. Following this the family came to the Potteries in ‘94 to join the Bucknall Team Ministry where Frank split his time between rural St Chad’s in Bagnall and urban St.Stephen’s, Bentilee.

Throughout his ministry, Frank has used his artistic talents in church and community to share the good news of Jesus Christ in creative ways. Frank’s new role in the Hanley Team builds on recent work for the Stoke North Deanery based at Christ Church Cobridge. This has involved art, drama, music, mural painting, making mosaics, weekly arts & craft groups, Messy Church as well as community events such as the Etruria Canals festival. Through all these activities he has made new friends and come alongside local people who have no regular, or no connection at all, with church. He hopes to continue using his creativity to surprise, entertain and challenge as he lives out the bible verse that impressed him when he first became a Christian in 1981: “Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come. All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also” (2 Cor 5:17,1)

Lay Reader Margaret CollinMargaret joined the Hanley Team Ministry in November 2001. She had previously done part of the Reader training in another church and completed it in January 2004 upon which she was licensed at Lichfield Cathedral. Marg really enjoys being a reader and working in the Hanley Team.

As well as serving God in the Hanley Team Ministry and around the parish and city, Marg enjoys spending time with her family and helping out with her grandchildren. She works in the administration department of the Citizens Advice Bureau where she was appointed in 1999.

Margaret looks forward to moving on with the team and wherever God is leading us all.

Assistant Curate Karen Petherick - Karen was licensed as Deacon at Petertide 2014 (end of June)., and ordained priest a year later. She says "Together with my family I moved to Hanley from London in 1998 and have been a Reader in the Hanley Team since September 2012 when I was licenced at Lichfield Cathedral. I am involved in preaching and leading worship across the team with a particular focus on St. Matthew’s.

I work as a teaching assistant in a local primary school and live with my husband Ian and three teenage children; Nathan, Zach and Phoebe, in Birches Head. In 2010 I began to feel that God was calling me to a different role within the Hanley Team and I am recently ordained as an assistant curate as I become an Ordained Local Minister. I look forward to continuing to serve God within the Team and helping others to discover the love that God has for us all."

Assistant Curate Shelley Billington Shelley (Shell) was born in Stoke-on-Trent, but went to university in Lancaster, spent a couple of years working for a church in Wolverhampton, and trained for ordination at Trinity College in Bristol. She is an avid watcher of Coronation Street, she supports Stoke City FC, and she is partly made of titanium! Shelley says "After exploring ordination for many years, it was great to finally get ordained in 2014".

Lay Reader Kath Boyce - Kath is the longest serving reader in our team. She says "I was originally a Methodist. However, I joined St Mark’s Church in 1979.

I was licensed as a reader in 1997. It has been a privilege to serve the team with such nice people. I particularly enjoy bereavement ministry, giving comfort to people in their time of need. I have served under several leaders and enjoyed the different styles of leadership.

When I joined the Hanley team, the leadership were predominantly men. Now the team is predominantly women. Who says God doesn't have a sense of humour!"

Lay Reader Roy Smith - Roy has been an ordained lay reader in the Church of England since 2010. He has been a foster carer for over 15 years. Roy spent most of his working life in industry. He started work on the shop floor and then worked in numerous other departments gaining a wide variety of skills. He finally settled into export sales, majoring in the Far East and Australian markets. This led to much travelling in the Far East.

Roy enjoys walking and supporting Stoke City. He has a busy family life with 5 teenagers and 2 children in their 20's.

Local Lay Minister for Pastoral Care. Mary is a member of St. Luke's Church.
Following the recommendation from the Diocesan Advisory Panel in May 2013, Mary underwent Pastoral Care training, starting the course in early September. She became a local lay minister in 2014.